Elena Pereskokova
Head of the Project Office for Children’s Tourism of the Russian Union of Travel Industry
The upcoming summer and school holidays make the issue of children’s tourism in Russia important again. EcoTourism Expert talked to Elena Pereskokova, Head of the Project Office for Children’s Tourism of the Russian Union of Travel Industry, about the state of this segment of the tourism business at the beginning of the season.
- Please tell us what upcoming summer of 2023 do you expect for children’s tourism?
- Of course, we hope that the summer will be active and the children will travel. The main thing that distinguishes the summer of 2023 from the last two summer seasons is the absence of children’s cashback. Of course, the whole country was eager to enjoy it, the parents expected to use it, but it was not offered. Therefore, there will be changes, of course.
- How serious will the changes be?
- They will not affect regional, departmental children’s summer camps because social support and certificates play their role in this segment, so the camps will be fully booked in any case. But private children’s camps and ones in the Krasnodar Territory that are intended for many children have to work hard to attract children.
- In your opinion, is it possible to predict an approximate drop in the number of tourists now?
- Recently, we have surveyed various organizations in this segment of the travel industry and the results can be divided into two groups.
Nothing has changed in the regions where basically all camps are departmental ones. The children received certificates and vouchers in these regions, and their parents were paid the compensations. But regarding commercial trips, some respondents noted a drop by almost three times, some firms had a 20 percent drop in demand.
- The numbers are very serious, I would say ...
- Right! Although, we must also take into account the fact that pent-up demand has generally decreased this year and people do not plan ahead for a long time any more. We still hope that the demand will recover. Although, we can say that the time is not easy for commercial children’s camps.
- What innovations do you expect in the organization of recreation?
- There are still qualitative changes in the tourism products offered in the children’s tourism market. Firstly, there are new programmes to develop the educational tourism as well as the patriotic tourism as the state paid attention to these issues. Besides, the “More than a Journey” programme had a great positive effect on the market, on the content of the tourism routes. Tour operators began to add various thematic blocks and useful activities to make them usefully interactive.
- As far as I understand, interactive approach in the children’s tourism is promising in the future.
- Of course, it was and is always effective, another thing is what it is aimed at. Now, it is more conscious and children are informed. And from entertaining activities in the interactive approach, we are gradually moving more towards the useful ones because even the children themselves tell that they want to be useful and help, they really like to be involved in serious activities, in various discussions, when they see that their opinion is really important. And many regions really listen to children during strategy sessions, they watch and study what exactly the children themselves are more interested in. Moreover, among the proposals made by children there are actually a lot of interesting and useful ideas.
- What problems will need to be addressed?
- This question is very difficult because there are actually a lot of tasks. In general, the problem with children’s transportation is very serious as the number of buses reduces and, in general, there are a lot of restrictions that make the transportation of children insufficiently attractive for carriers. These transportation issues are quite complicated, therefore, the prices for transportation are higher.
We also face the staff shortage. Perhaps, these are the most important problems to be addressed.
- In general, what is the situation with the children’s tourism today in terms of state support?
- Of course, we would like to have greater state support. Although new support measures are also offered like a tourist certificate as part of the social order. Last year, 18 regions took part in the social order, and this year, there are already 29 regions among the participants. Both the number of children and funding have doubled.
Funding has also increased within the framework of the “More than a Journey” programme. And this year, we expect the main flow of children and youth to join this programme because due to a number of organizational issues, there were few trips in the winter and spring but right now, there is a chance for this flow to grow.
